Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sensory Activities

I've been trying to find different activities for the child I'm currently taking care of to do. It's the middle of winter so not much time outside is done. I'm trying to break the monotonous of our day, plus he's old enough to start doing sensory activities with. Today I taped streamers on a table and put him under it to see what he'd do. He would only play with them if I wasn't looking right at him. If I did look at him or talked to him while he played with them he would look up and around like he couldn't hear me and completely ignore me.

I'll start doing other sensory activities with him too like having him play in applesauce, pudding, oats etc. These will give him the sensory activities he needs without having a sensory table to play in. When I work in child care centers each classroom has a sensory table that I put all kinds of different things in. I do colored sand, water with cups etc in it. This list is too long to name. I have the little boy I take care of do these activities in a plastic bowl while sitting on the kitchen floor so that any mess he makes can easily be cleaned up. Here is a list done by NAEYC of ten activities a teacher can do with their class in the sensory table. However, these activities can be done at home with children as well because they can easily be modified.